The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

  • Who ‘ll pick up the gauntlet?

    Who ‘ll pick up the gauntlet?

    To go to a judge, is to go to justice, for the ideal judge is, so to say, justice personified – Aristotle

    ONE APPELATION THAT HAS STUCK to the court is the one that fittingly describes it as the last hope of the common man. It is so described because we live in a world where might is right and the strong, powerful and affluent lord it over the weak and poor. The poor or the hoi poloi, if you like, have no one to fight for them, except God. And as they say, the Almighty will not come down to do that.

    He will use man, again as they say, to solve the problem. Touching the heart of that man, that great helper from nowhere then becomes the issue. Some people, no matter how powerful, rich and influential they are do not like to interfere in others’ matters. They move around unconcerned about the condition of the poor, even when their attention is drawn to such people’s plight. It takes the grace of God for the wealthy to descend to the level of the poor to help and bail them out. But the court does not relate with people on the basis of class.

    Whether rich or poor, we are all said to be equal before the law. I use the word ‘said’ advisedly. I admit that we are now in a world where this maxim seems not to hold true again. The law is no respecter of persons, as we are told. But we have heard of stories where the big man walks away free from the law despite being guilty as charged, while the poor is severely punished even where he is innocent. We do not live in the George Orwellian age of Animal Farm, the title of his 1945 satirical book on the life and classification of animals in a commune. But unfortunately we appear to be in a situation where some animals are more equal than others as painted in Orwell’s interesting book.

    Those who regale us with these tales of the absurd blame the court for where we are today as a nation. They accuse judges of bribery and corruption. They say they sell justice to the highest bidder. We will be lying to ourselves if we say that some of these stories are not true. But then, where are the facts? There are black sheep in the judiciary, just as they are in other areas of human endeavours, but that is not enough to tar the whole institution with the same brush. When you hear some people, among them senior lawyers, who should know better, talk about our judges, you will shudder.

    They describe the judges in unflattering words, making wild allegations about their character, honour and integrity. All a judge has is his honour. Remove that and you strip him naked. For too long, many people have done the unthinkable to our judges all because, by virtue of their oath of office, they are to be seen not heard, except when they give their rulings and judgments. How do you accuse a judge of collecting bribe to decide a case without substantiating the claim? The law says “he who alleges must prove”. It is high time those who accused judges of wrongdoing were made to prove them with facts and figures.

    It is not enough to write a tendentious book on unproven allegations of corruption in the judiciary, or run to television and radio stations or the social media with such tales. The accusers must be bold to walk the talk by backing up their allegations with proof,  cogent proof of who gave what, the amount, the time and place of the deal. Such allegations are too weighty to be treated with levity. They go to the root of justice, which is the bedrock of the rule of law on which every society stands.

    Our nation operates on the basis of rule of law. The rule of law does not exist in name alone. It is the culmination of the activities of our judges who interpret our laws and sit in judgment over us. The rule of law will therefore be tainted by a corrupt judge. This is why these allegations of corruption in the judiciary can no longer be overlooked. It is time to name and shame those involved. This is where those making the allegations come in. If they really want a squeaky clean judiciary, they must go the whole hog by naming the judges involved in the shady deals that they have written or talked about. If they cannot, they should forever remain silent and apologise to Nigerians for peddling false information.

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    Her Ladyship, the President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, who is apparently troubled by these allegations, has now called them out: “produce evidence or stop the allegations”. She speaks from the place of pain. As PCA, she constituted the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC), which handled the disputes over the 2023 presidential poll. Many of us are witnesses to the many unfounded allegations made against the court by the petitioners and their lawyers. Where the court ruled against them, it was corrupt, where it did not, it was fair and equitable.

    For how long shall we continue like this as a nation? Her Ladyship may be looking ahead, knowing that the 2027 general elections are looming. By virtue of her position, it is her responsibility to constitute the PEPC that will handle disputes likely to arise from the presidential poll two years from now. Let us not deceive ourselves, such disputes will arise, and allegations of corruption will, sadly again, flow like confetti against the panel. Perhaps, this is why Dongban-Mensem is now calling on these perpetual noise makers to get their facts ready or keep quiet. She has spoken well.

    What will these allegations profit us as a nation, if those making them do not provide proof? The claims will only end up causing chaos and denting the image of judges who are honestly doing their job. Whistle-blowing, if we can call it that, is not about destroying the image of any body, whether a judge or not, but for building a just, fair and equitable society.

    Judges have a key role to play in such a society. So, society must preserve their integrity so that they can continue to maintain justice. The obverse is too grave to contemplate, with the 2027 polls imminent.

  • ‘Saint’ Matthew

    ‘Saint’ Matthew

    • OBJ’s sermon on the Plateau

    At a time like this, all hands must be on deck in the search of lasting solutions for the nation’s security challenges. It is not a time to play divisive, ethnic and religious politics or to put the government down before the people. It is the government’s main responsibility to secure the country. There is no doubt about that. Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is as clear as daylight on the issue.

    According to Section 14 (2) (b) of this chapter: the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. This is a huge responsibility which no government can treat lightly. It is in a secure and serene environment that the people can thrive. They move freely, meet and chat without fear, and strike business deals without any threat whatsoever. There is no gainsaying that the people today mostly live in fear because of the national security concern.

    It has become worse in recent times following American President Donald Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern’ and threat to come ‘guns-a-blazing’ to take out the rampaging terrorists over what he called ‘Christian genocides’. Now, genocide is a strong word. It is not a word thrown around for the fun of it. Indeed, there are killings in Nigeria. This a fact that cannot he wished away. The government knows too well that it has a problem on its hands.

    Ever before Trump came with its threat, the government has been working on the problem. Is it a problem that can be solved in one day? It is not. If it were, the government would have inherited a country with zero security challenge. No country, not even the mighty United States (U.S.) whose leader is breathing down Nigeria’s neck has attained that level. Resolving the security challenge is work in progress (WIP). We will be lying to ourselves if we say that it is something that can be achieved in 24 hours, as some people, including those who should know better are suggesting.

    No rational Nigerian has ever argued that there are no killings in Nigeria. Every citizen is under threat. Even those going about in convoys are not spared. Nigerians do not need a Donald Trump to tell them this. To paint the picture, as former President Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo did in Jos, the Plateau State capital on Friday, as if the government is denying this well known fact is wrong and self-serving. The former president should know better than that having been in government as a military leader (1976-1979), and then as a civilian (1999-2007).

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    Did he hand over a country without security blemishes to Shehu Shagari in 1979, and Umoru Yar’Adua in 2007? No, he did not. The dynamics might have changed but the problem remains. The armed robbery, religious and sectarian crises and kidnapping for money rituals, and militancy and separatist agitations, among other related issues which were the main fares in 1979 and 2007 have converged to become what is today known as terrorism, banditry, insurgency and kidnapping for ransom.

    Obasanjo will be burying his head in the sand like ostrich if he says he is not aware that these challenges were there when he was in office. To now go to Plateau where the people have been besieged for long, even during his own time in office, to talk the way he did is not the stuff of which great leaders are made. Obasanjo should have been measured and temperate in his speech, rather than play to the gallery. What did he want to achieve by doing so? To incite an already beleaguered people against the state?

    The occasion was to sing gospel songs to soothe the pain of the people and not to add to it. Obasanjo tried to be clever by half in his claims on the security situation. He missed the point when he said the government is denying that people are being killed. Has the government ever said so? What it said and is still saying is that Nigerians irrespective of their faith, region or political leanings are being killed. The government’s denial of Trump’s claim of ‘Christian genocides’ is not the same as saying there are no killings in Nigeria. How can anybody say that when what is happening is obvious?

    Christians, Muslims, Traditional worshippers, pagans, and foreigners are being killed. So, why is Trump not taking up the case of the other victims? Why is he selective in his approach? So, the lives of muslims, traditional worshippers and pagans do not matter to him? Humanity is one, no matter the faith or the lack of it that they profess. As Trump seems concerned about the lives of Christians, so also should he show concern for the others who have been killed by terrorists, insurgents and bandits in Nigeria. It is then that he can truly lay claim to being a global crusader for peace and security.

    It is, therefore, distasteful for Obasanjo to endorse Trump’s plan to invade Nigeria to fight insurgency on this score. His submission also that the people have the right to seek external support to save them is not a statement that should come from a man of his status. How would he have reacted if such a submission had been made by someone else when he was in office? The public knows how Baba reacts to such things. He would have descended on such a person, cursing and ranting. I watched him on television, with mouth agape, as he said at the Plateau State Unity Christmas Carol and Praise Festival:

    “We are part of the world community, and if our government cannot do it, we have the right to call on the international community to do for us what the government cannot do for us”. Such an inciting statement coming from a former president at what was tagged a ‘Unity’ rally is intolerable and condemnable. Baba has no right to call for a foreign invasion of Nigeria. What he has done smacks of treason. One only hopes he realises that and clears the air. But then, like every eminent Nigerian, he is above the law. Otherwise, he should be answering questions now on what he meant.

  • A week like eternity

    A week like eternity

    •General lays down life

    HIS GRUESOME KILLING shook the nation. Brigadier-General Musa Uba died in line of duty. An officer and a gentleman, he was leading his men and some members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) on a mission to hunt down the terrorists, bandits and insurgents troubling the nation when they were ambushed along the Damboa-Biu Road in Borno State.

    The attack, which was carried out by the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists happened on November 14. It was a black Friday, which presaged a week in which these elements went on the rampage in some states. They hit Borno, Kebbi, Kwara and Niger states, killing, kidnapping and looting in their characterisric style. Infants were not spared, as they abducted hundreds of nursery school kids in Niger, among others.

    The General’s bludgeoning stinks. It rankles because of how it happened. He had managed to escape the ISWAP ambush in which some of his men were killed. He was in the forest trying to find his way back to base. He relayed his position to his colleagues through WhatsApp. Somehow, his message leaked and started trending in social media. The military did all it could to salvage the situation, to no avail.

    The harm had been done. The terror group cashed in on that momentary lapse caused by the leaked message to comb the forest for Uba. They found and killed him, and in their typical way celebrated their bestial act in a video. Uba died a hero, as President Bola Tinubu said in a tribute. There is no gainsaying the fact that laying down one’s life for one’s country is the primary duty of a soldier, but the circumstances of Uba’s death are quite disturbing. Who did he send his message for help to?

    What did the receiver do with it? Was it treated with the utmost secrecy and urgency it deserved in order to evacuate him out of danger? How did the message get to the social media many of whose practitioners are not professional journalists? Uba did not deserve to die the way he did? If those he messaged had done their jobs well, he might have been saved with the terrorists suffering a heavy loss.

    What has happened to the area where he was gruesomely killed? Has it been levelled to send a message to ISWAP and others that no beast in human skin kills a soldier, a General for that matter, and lives to celebrate it?  Uba’s death should not be in vain. One of the ways to memorialise him will be the routing of ISWAP, Boko Haram, ISIS, Lakurawa, Ansaru and other terror groups by whatever name called, to restore law and order in the north, where the past week was hell. Their renewed offensive on schools and a church was shattering and it affected the national psyche.

    It came on the heels of the global efforts to change the narratives about our national image being pushed by American President Donald Trump. Trump had described the insecurity in Nigeria as ‘Christian genocide’, and vowed to come ‘guns-a-blazing’ to save ‘our beloved Christians’. It is thus difficult to dismiss the claim of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, that this ‘targeted killings’ statement might have emboldened the terrorists to unleash these fresh attacks.

    Truly, such attacks had gone down until Trump spoke some weeks ago. The renewed attacks began 10 days ago, after they apparently took a cue from that remark. Their first target on November 17  was a girls school in Maga, Kebbi State, where they abducted 24 pupils after shooting dead the vice principal and injuring the principal. The 24 girls were freed on Tuesday.

    Barely 24 hours later, they hit the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), in Eruku, Kwara State, taking away 38 worshippers, among them an elderly woman. The abductees regained their freedom on Sunday. Their story is intriguing. The worshippers were in church to thank God for the release of tbeir brethren who were earlier abducted when they too fell victims of the abductors. In the midst of these incidents, the government is waging war on the global front to change the Trump narrative about Nigeria.

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    The United States (U.S.) Congress which he is armtwisting to impose sanctions on Nigeria and back his plan to send troops to take out the terrorists beamed a searchlight on our country on Thursday. Nigeria was on trial of sorts before the world as the proceedings of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa were aired globally. Some members of the Congress led by two women, Sara Jacobs and Pamela Jayapal, argued against the classification of Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern’, while their counterparts, Riley Moore and Bill Huizenga, led those who insisted that there were ‘targeted killings’ in Nigeria.

    Huizenga, who became emotional as he recalled going to ‘school with kids from Nigeria’ pointedly accused the Tinubu administration of doing nothing to stop the killings. In its defence, Nigeria admitted that it has security challenges, explaining that all it required was collaboration with the U.S. to address the issue. Although, it is painful that Nigeria has not overcome the problem, which reared its ugly head in 2009, with the killing of Boko Haram leader Muhammed Yusuf in police custody, it is wrong to say that the country has not done anything about it.

    Past administrations fought it. The Tinubu administration intensified the campaign after assuming office over two years ago. Its efforts might have resulted in scorching the snake and not in killing it, though. Therefore, it will be insincere to accuse the government of folding its hands and doing nothing. More needs to be done, no doubt. So, the government must reawaken to the reality of the situation and do everything possible to kill this snake now, or continue to be the butt of cynical remarks by Trump, Moore, Huizenga and their local ilk.

    It is in this frame that the Niger school abductions which followed the congressional hearing beggar belief. After the Kebbi and Eruku attacks, the security agencies should have been more alive to their responsibilities to nip in the bud any other fresh incidents. That the Catholic (Private) Nursery, Primary and Secondary Schools, Papiri, Niger State, was hit just four days after the Kebbi attack, and in the wake of the congressional hearing, speaks volume about how prepared and serious we are to fight this scourge.

    The government has given its die-hard critics the ammunition to fight it and say ‘see those who say they are fighting terrorism’. Papiri should not have happened at all, at least not at a time like this, or at any other time for that matter. The attack should be a challenge to the government to go all out and tame this scourge. There is no better time than now to break this yoke. It has festered for too long. Those nursery kids (just imagine their ages) are waiting (only God knows where they are being held) to be reunited with their parents and guardians. I can hear their cries in my ears as I type this.

  • Military zone, keep off!

    Military zone, keep off!

    IT IS A SIGN that puts the fear of God in people, especially those of us that the military derisively call ‘bloody civilians’. The words that make the legend are only two, but weighty and powerful. They give the strong goosebumps, to the dismay of the lily-livered. Land grabbers too see the words, and run, despite being known for their own ‘craze’, to borrow a street lingo.

    The words: ‘military zone’ are as old as the institution itself. They are not words meant to be splashed on any building or land for the fun of it. They are words that indicate the military status of certain places. But, in our environment, these words have been abused. Mind you, the abuse did not start today. It started aeons ago. You might have seen the words splashed on fenced bushy lands or houses under construction. At times, there are uniformed men guarding these properties, which in some instances are owned by civilians, who enjoy the privilege of having top military officers as friends.

    Yet, they carry the frightening words: ‘military zone, keep off’. Peep inside, you will not military activities going on there. The signpost was erected just to scare people away from the land owned by either a top officer or a well connected civilian. There was no such sign, though on the Abuja property which a naval officer, Lieutenant Ahmed Yerima, prevented Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, from accessing on November 11 for verification. The officer claimed he was carrying out the orders of his boss, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, a former chief of naval staff.

    Yerima has attained celebrity status since the incident, with an unenlightened but highly educated crowd praising him for standing up to Wike. It is the carryover of the ‘military zone’ mentality that imbued Yerima with the audacity to take on Wike in full public glare. Though, the Abuja property where he stood guard with some of his subordinates did not bear the words: ‘military zone’, their presence alone was the equivalence of those words, and more.The military has over the years used and is still using those words to forcibly enforce its right to any land of its choice. If it takes the Wike incident to curtail these military excesses, the public will jump for joy.

    But first, what led to the tiff? We are told that the land is owned by Gambo, who deployed Yerima to guard it. Under military law, it is wrong to use officers as well as the rank and file for non-military duty. If the naval chief wanted protection for a land, that is purely a civil case, which he should have reported to the police. He did not. Rather, he resorted to self help and used his constituency to enforce his right to a land which is reserved for a parkway, and not residential.

    It was said that the land was sold to him by the allotee who acquired it for the designated purpose of parks and recreation but resorted to partitiong it for sale to the unsuspecting public for residential purpose. Gambo was one of the unlucky buyers. In land law, there is a maxim known as caveat emptor, that is buyer beware. A buyer is expected to make enquiries upon enquiries before buying any land. If he does not, and he is scammed, he will face the consequences of his action. Gambo is paying the price for not doing due diligence before buying the land.

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    He cannot now take out his anger on Wike and officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) by using his aides to enforce a right that does not exist. What about the civilian victims of the deal? What should they do? Who will fight for them since they do not have the military like Gambo to help them? People seem to  forget that under the law, every land in Abuja is invested in the FCT Minister, just as the governors in their respective states.

    And just like the governors, Wike cannot stand by and allow anybody, no matter how highly placed, to use might to enforce his right to a land illegally acquired, ab initio. It becomes worse where the military, which should be the custodian of discipline and decency, is involved in a matter that should ordinarily be handled by the police. The illegal protection of a property is not the same as defending the country’s territorial integrity, which is the military’s main duty.

    This ‘military zone’ mentality of might is right has no place in our society. The earlier officers like Gambo and Yerima and their ilk know this, the better for them, and every Nigerian, no matter their profession. Some of Yerima’s superiors and colleagues may be gloating behind the scenes over how he treated Wike, but I leave him with this adage, “if you are sent on an errand as a slave, you deliver it like a freeborn”.

    He and his boss should not be carried away by the misguided notion of having public sympathy on their side. They, like every other serving and retired military personnel, should subjugate themselves to civilian authority and accord Wike as well as other ministers their due respect.

    By so doing, Gambo and Yerima would be honouring their Commander-in-Chief under whose authority they were  commissioned. It is Wike today. It may be another minister or any other citizen, for that matter, tomorrow, and the end result may be dire. We should not wait for that to happen before officers like Yerima are called to order for undermining civilian authority.

  • PDP, O, their PDP!

    PDP, O, their PDP!

    The Once self-styled largest party in Africa, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is imploding. In fact, some say it is dead. They may be correct, amid the party’s struggles to rediscover and reposition itself for the future. The process for doing so is somehow proving difficult, as its warring leaders are going in and out of court. At the last count, three courts, all of coordinate jurisdiction, have granted orders either suspending or approving its convention billed to start in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital,  on Saturday, just 48 hours away.

    Its budding national leader and Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has since vowed that no jupiter can stop the convention. He is doing everything underground to ensure that this comes to pass. But the forces against him, and his counterparts in Bauchi and Adamawa, Bala Muhammed and Umaru Fintiri, three of the party’s remaining eight governors, desperately pushing for the convention are many. Will the convention hold, despite the two orders stopping the exercise and the one approving it? The public is watching with amusement as it awaits further developments (or do we say fresh exparte orders?).

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    Former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, who is interested in the national chairman’s job, obtained the latest order on Tuesday from an Abuja Federal High Court, stopping the convention. He went to court on October 31 to stop the convention, but Justice Peter Lifu, declined to grant the order on the strength of Lamido’s exparte motion (that is one-sided application). Justice Lifu asked him to serve the other parties so that the motion could be heard and determined in the presence of all. The judge did that on Tuesday, and fixed today for further hearing, after acknowledging that he was aware of the October 31 verdict of his brother-judge, Justice James Omotosho, who also sits in Abuja, stopping the convention.

    But Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Ibadan High Court on November 3 approved the holding of the convention and its monitoring by the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) based on an exparte motion. When the parties appeared before him on Monday, he declined to lift the exparte injunction as requested by the other side which drew his attention to Justice Omotosho’s verdict. He asked them to return today. Will the convention hold or not? How will Justice Akintola untie the legal knot which his exparte order seems to have become? The holding of the convention depends on him and his handling of this vexed issue. All eyes are on him.

  • A label and its self-righteous designer

    A label and its self-righteous designer

    MAKE NO MISTAKE about it. Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC) is of the American President’s making only. It has become state policy because whatever he does carries the presidential seal. But does Nigeria deserve this tag? Should the country be so dubbed considering all it has been doing to stop the atrocities being perpetrated in some parts of the country by evil persons and groups.

    Before Trump’s threat to come ‘guns-a-blazing’ to that now ‘disgraced country’ to rescue our ‘cherished Christians’, the Nigeria state has been doing all within its power to curtail the activities of terrorists and insurgents, especially in the northern parts of the country. What these elements are doing is not state approved. Rather, the government has been going all-out on the offensive against them.

    Trump himself can attest to the fact of Nigeria’s seriousness to deal with the situation. What else is there to say, if a nation can go to the extent of acquiring sophisticated military hardware like the Super Tucano Jets to fight the terrorists, bandits, insurgents and other criminal elements operating under one guise or the other in the northeast, northwest and northcentral? Has Trump forgotten so soon that those jets were acquired during his first tenure as POTUS (president of the United States)?

    The jets would have gone a long way in helping Nigeria to flush out these elements from their hiding, but the same US that sold them to us, then from nowhere set the conditions under which they could be used. Those terms and conditions had serious effects and repercussions on the war against terror, banditry and insurgency. Some of the jets were supplied, others have not been delivered, despite being paid for upfront, several years ago. With the perpetrators getting access to more sophisticated weapons (obtained from only God knows where), Nigeria’s military march against them was slowed down.

    In the process, the face and tone of the campaign against terror changed. How can the US which is now again under Trump, who claims to be so concerned about terrorism, set those conditions for using the Super Tucanos at a time Nigeria was winning the war against the terrorists? To return now a few years later to redesignate Nigeria as CPC, about 60 months after he first labelled us as such during his first coming, is unfair, unjust and unkind. By doing so, Trump is only throwing his weight around as the most powerful leader on earth today.

    “O”, as Shakespeare said, “it is excellent to have the strength of a giant, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant”. Trump should remember these immortal words because the power America wields today was once wielded by another country. Where is that country today? Come to think of it, can what is happening in Nigeria be described as ‘Christian genocides’, on which ground Trump tagged it CPC when the killings for which he is so much concerned are not state sanctioned nor targeted at any particular region and religion? It is obvious that Trump did not get his facts right before he acted. That is vintage Trump. He acts first and thinks later. He is quick to respond but slow to listen and rationalise things before going for the kill.

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    What Nigeria needs is help to fight the insurgents, and not the kind of action he is planning. He says he would move in swiftly and wipe out the perpetrators of this evil. All well and good, but has he thought about the consequences of doing that without working with Nigeria? Nigeria accepts that it has security challenges. It has never shied away from this fact. But it is challenged in getting the military hardware for prosecuting this unconventional war, which experts say is the most dangerous kind to undertake because the enemy is ensconced among the vulnerable, the same people that the fighting military must protect.

    No one is making excuses for what is happening in parts of Nigeria, but it is unkind to paint a picture of gloom and doom about the country – for which it has been wrongly labelled CPC. Every nation has its problems. Trump’s America has its own problems too. It is renowned for gun killings, police brutality and drug abuse, among others, but who on earth can designate it a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ for all these atrocities? Who?

    One is not begging the issue. I side with Trump on flushing out the insurgents by all means, but describing what is happening as ‘Christian genocides’ amounts to giving Nigeria a bad name to hang it. The perpetrators of this evil do not discriminate on the grounds of religion and region. They kill people anywhere they go, no matter where the victims come from or religion. This is the simple truth. To peddle the story of ‘Christian genocides’ or any genocide of whatever hue as some faith leaders and frustrated politicians who should know better did and are still doing, as if the killings are state sponsored, stands this truth on its  head.

    President Bola Tinubu sums it up succinctly:  “Do we have problems? Yes. Are we challenged by terrorism? Yes. But we will defeat terrorism. We will overcome the CPC designation. We shall spare no effort until we eliminate all criminals. We want our friends to help us”.  Yes, our friends should help and not undermine us. There are no ‘Christian genocides’ in Nigeria to warrant the CPC label.

  • Ndi Anambra vote

    Ndi Anambra vote

    Forty-Eight Hours from now, the people of Anambra State will go to the polls to elect their governor. Will they return Governor Chukwuma Soludo, or will they elect a brand new governor? The election will be a test case for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan, who assumed office last month. He is barely three weeks old on the job.

    It is good that he is starting with an off-cycle election and in one state for that matter. With the security challenges in Anambra and the Southeast, in general, he must roll up his sleeves to ensure that this problem does not mar the election. Security is not his job though, but it is vital to a successful election. The security agencies must lend him a helping hand in this regard.

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    Amupitan has his job cut out for him. It is free and fair election or nothing. He has a huge task ahead and as he makes his debut as INEC Chair, with the Anambra poll on Saturday, the country’s chief electoral officer must have his eyes on how posterity will judge his tenure. His name, Amupitan, which means “a catalyst of history”, speaks to that. The nation cannot wait to see him not only make history, but also be a catalyst of change.

  • PDP’s jinxed convention

    PDP’s jinxed convention

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is sinking deeeper and deeper into the mud by the day. As it were, it is without a clear-cut strategy for freeing itself. Instead of devising one, some of its leaders are trying to use the playbook that paved the way for the June 12, 1993 quagmire, which almost consumed the country. They went to a court in Ibadan, Oyo State, to obtain an order to hold the party’s November 15 convention in the ancient city, four days after a court of concurrent jurisdiction in Abuja stopped the exercise.

    The  Abuja court also barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from upholding the convention’s outcome, if it held. It was delivering judgment in a case brought by three chieftains of the party who claimed that due process was not followed in fixing the convention date.

    Rather than appeal, another party member, apparently being teleguided, ran to Ibadan – where else? – to obtain orders which are in variance with those of the Abuja court. The issues in  contention are not different. The plaintiffs in the Abuja court are praying that the convention should not hold until the party does the right things. Some of these things, they contend, are the holding of congresses at the ward, local government and state levels to precede the convention, in line with the party’s constitution and INEC guidelines.

    Were the congresses held? If they did not hold, what prevented them from holding, and what are the remedies available to the party? Were these remedies pursued? In the Ibadan case, which has a sole plaintiff, who claims that he is contesting for deputy national organising sectetary at the forthcoming convention, the picture being painted is that everything is good to go. This may well be true, at least to the plaintiff and his sponsors, who sought and got an interim injunction to hold the convention.

    They are to return to court on Monday to argue the motion for interlocutory injunction in the presence of the defendants who were not there when the exparte motion for interim injunction was heard. The court may be packed full that day as many interested and necessary parties will show up. For sure, the plaintiffs in the Abuja case and their backers will be there as they would not want their heads shaved behind their backs. Nobody needs a soothsayer to know that PDP is haemorhaging. The party has been suffering losses left, right and centre.

    It has lost four governors in quick succession and a host of national and state lawmakers to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Even the run up to its convention was and is still being dogged by infighting within the national working committee (NWC). This crisis prompted the Abuja suit in which Justice James Omotosho delivered judgment on October 31 after listening to all the parties. Based on legal authorities, the court acknowledged the conditions for conducting the convention, and emphasised the need for the party to follow its own rules and INEC guidelines before going ahead with the exercise.

    The court held that until the party did what is expected of it, the convention cannot hold. Now, the Ibadan court has given a conflicting ruling, without hearing the other side, on the strength of an exparte motion, setting the stage for another round of battle for PDP’s soul. Exparte motions can be heard in open court or in chambers, with only the applicant(s) in attendance. The applicant(s) is/are expected to give an undertaking to indemnify the other side in case it turned out that the interim order should not have been granted.

    The Ibadan court cleared the convention to hold and ordered INEC to monitor it. With this ruling, INEC now has two court orders to contend with. Which should the commission obey? Mercifully, Prof Joash Amupitan, the INEC Chairman is not only a lawyer, but also a Professor of Law of Evidence and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

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    Perhaps, Justice Laditan Akintola of the Ibadan High Court was unaware of his learned brother, Justice Omotosho’s judgment, which came before his interim injunction. Politicians are sly and cunny. They have their own ways of doing things as long as the end justifies the means. If you ask me, I would say there was no longer the need for the Ibadan suit, following the Abuja court verdict. Both cases are the same in terms of the reliefs sought. The only thing is that one wants the convention suspended and the other is saying no, it should go on.

    With a party obtaining judgment in Abuja stopping the convention as well as INEC from upholding its outcome, if it held, should another party have gone to Ibadan to obtain what amounts to conflicting orders, as the plaintiff before Justice Akintola did? The orders by Justice Akintola reversed all the orders of his brother judge, Justice Omotosho. I am sure that Justice Akintola would not have made those contradictory orders if his attention had been drawn to Justice Omotosho’s judgment. It is in the nature of politicians to hide such facts, especially when they are in desperate situations.

    But it is for the judges to be a step ahead of these politicians always by asking the right questions to ferret answers that will stop the litigants in their tracks and ensure that the courts are not misled. The filing of the Ibadan suit was deliberate and it was instigated  by those dissatisfied with the Abuja verdict, who want the PDP cinvention to hold at all costs, and without regards for due process. This resort to multiplicity of suits which the Supreme Court has condemned on many occasions will not help the cause of the PDP governors who are behind the Ibadan case.

    In cases of this type, the first in time prevails. I have no doubt that INEC will comply with the Abuja verdict barring it from upholding the outcome of the convention, if it holds. Those who ran to another judge for an order to hold a convention already stopped by a fellow judge should not take the nation down this road again. The wound of the June 12 debacle is still fresh in the people’s memory, 32 years after the bitter enterprise,

    May I remind them that the Federal High Court where Justice Omotosho sits and the State High Court where Justice Akintola sits are of coordinate jurisdiction – that is one is not higher than the other. As such, one cannot reverse the orders made by the other. Only the appeal court can do that.

  • What does Kanu want?

    What does Kanu want?

    Nnamdi Kanu is at it again. For the umpteenth time, he pulled another stunt in court on Monday when his treason trial resumed. He was expected to open his defence so that the case can get on the home stretch. He was given between October 23 and today to do so. He wasted the one week grace without doing the needful. He kept on giving excuses whenever the case came up.

    First, it was the sacking of his lawyers. The second was that he did not have the case files as his lawyers went away with them after their sack. The third was that he believed that the court could not try him as there was no valid charge against him. He then requested that he be freed or be given one week to file a written address. Kanu may adopt whatever delay tactic catches his fancy. He will bear the brunt as he is the one in custody. But should he be allowed to dictate1to the court? The answer is NO!

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    How can he come back now and say there is no ‘valid charge’ against him after the court dismissed his ‘no-case submission’ last month; asked him to open his defence and gave him between October 23 and 30 to do so? The court has bent backward enough to accommodate Kanu, but he keeps abusing the privilege. I pity him! Whether he and his ilk like it or not, his trial must go on and justice will take its course. It is just a matter of time. Let them take to the streets from now till thy kingdom comes, it will change nothing, and  heavens will not fall.

    Since he has decided to become an emergency lawyer, Kanu should know the next step to take after the Federal High Court concludes the case. The law is no respecter of persons, but of those who respect the law. As the court ciunselled him: “this is not economics; this is a criminal prosecution”. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.

  • PDP and the ides of November

    PDP and the ides of November

    THE history of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) predates the membership of many who today are at the helm of its affairs. They were young boys probably still in school then when it started as a group founded by the late former Vice President Alex Ekwueme at the 1994 Constitutional Conference organised by the Abacha junta. The mission of the Group of 34 (G34) eminent Nigerians was cut out for it from the outset – get the military out of power and ensure that Gen Sani Abacha did not transmute into civilian president.

    Abacha had a plan which he wanted to use the conference to achieve. So, he loaded it with his loyalists who will do his bidding under the pretence of preparing the grounds for a return to democratic rule. His crowd was always coming up with issues and motions that favoured the dictator. Ekwueme and other like-minds saw through the shenanigans and swiftly moved to stop the nonsense. The conference report was a blow to Abacha’s dream and so he did not touch it.

    On his death four years later and the resolve of the succeeding administration to return the country to democratic rule without much delay, the Ekwueme group which had been meeting all along, even after the end of the constitutional conference quickly seized the moment to begin the process of becoming a party. The G34 became the nucleus that formed PDP in 1998. By then, its rank had shrunk from G34 to G18, as some had left to be part of other arrangements elsewhere.

    Whether as G34 or G18, the umbilical chord of PDP can still be traced to the struggles of this formidable group of politicians who gave their all for the birth of the party. Former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, who is today fighting a battle of his life in order to lead the party was in the thick of things then. He was an associate of many members of G18. As governor, he built some houses in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, which he named after the G18 leaders.

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    Lamido may have seen it all as a politician, but the young turks who today control PDP may not have the sense of history to accord him the respect he deserves as an elder of the party. He might have built monuments in memory of G18 leaders in his state, this is of no significance to the governors now calling the shots in PDP, which he believes that he toiled for with others in G18 to bring to life. Lamido wants to be PDP national chairman at its forthcoming 15th (ides) of November convention in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, which is the home turf of the emerging national leader of the party, Governor Seyi Makinde.

    Indeed, if leadership were to be about age and experience, the chair would have automatically gone to Lamido. But as he knows, that is not how it is done. Political leadership is not about age, but about clout, resources and your support base which must be huge and well oiled. The governors have settled for former Special Duties Minister Tanimu Turaki as the consensus national chairman. It is said that they have the support of a section of the party’s national working committee (NWC) in endorsing Turaki.

    The governors may have their way at the convention, as things stand. As the payer of the piper, they call the tune. They are the ones now funding the troubled party since its sole funder and former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike seems to have withdrawn such support because of  ‘irreconcilable differences’.  The convention is going to be quite interesting – if it holds. Some state chairmen of the party have gone to court to challenge it, claiming that due process was not followed in fixing it. Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, will rule on the case tomorrow.

    Also, the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, is alleging that his signature on the letter sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) about the convention was forged. The party has since denied his claim. The Lamido challenge may be the ultimate in the series of rows dogging the convention. Why is the party shutting the chairmanship door against Lamido? If the governors are sure of their strength, why are they afraid of allowing him to collect the form and run against their anointed candidate for chairman?

    Legally and constitutionally, Lamido or any Nigerian for that matter cannot be denied the right to contest for any elective post of their choice. PDP should move swiftly to nip this crisis in the bud before Lamido makes good his threat to go to court as and challenge the decision to stop him from running for chairman. If they have the numbers to defeat him, they should allow him to contest and defeat him at the poll and demystify him as an oracle of the party, which in a way is how he perceives himself as a founding father of PDP

    Need I remind PDP that the ides of November is at hand? It is just 16 days away. Whether the convention holds on that day or not is in the hands of the party and its powerful governors. As they make their bed, so will they lie on it.